Cold Wave condition: How it works for Nagpur and Hyderabad

January 11, 2019 9:54 AM |
Skymet Weather Team

The gloomy yet enchanting season of winter is characterized by freezing temperatures and Cold Wave condition. A Cold Wave is a distinguished weather condition characterized by cooling of air. The criterion is, ‘when departure from normal is four to five degree Celsius, Cold Wave conditions appear.

Cold Wave condition is an in- built characteristic of North India, which is spread and extends to central parts and sometimes even to southern sub divisions of the country. However, extreme southern sub divisions such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and many others remain unaffected by this condition due to presence of narrow land stretches there. Moreover, these areas are located in proximity to sea.

Now, talking about central parts of the country, particularly Vidarbha and adjoining areas, these have fair amount of land stretches. Still, Cold Wave condition is not something, a regular affair for these areas as weather systems always maintain a distance and mostly remain confined to northern parts of country only. However, weather system over North India governs the weather over rest of the country including Central India. For example, if rain and snow occur over northern parts, the temperatures start falling over central parts, because cold winds travel from north directions over central parts.

Usually, Cold Day conditions as well as Cold Wave conditions work simultaneously for both Vidarbha and Telangana. This is because both these areas are located adjacent to each other and share their geographical boundaries. Moreover, same winds travel over both with a slight lag over Telangana.

However, being located in Central India, cold conditions are comparatively little harsher over Vidarbha than Telangana, obviously because the latter is in southern division.

Since December 2, many parts of Central India have been witnessing Cold Wave condition, Nagpur remaining the coldest of all in Vidarbha. On the other hand, Adilabad has been observed as coldest place this season in Telangana. Similarly, many other places in Vidarbha region such as Washim, Wardha,Parbhani as well as Nizamabad, Khammam in Telangana had experienced Cold Wave conditions.

Let’s quickly compare temperatures over Nagpur with that over Hyderabad-

Nagpur- Minimums over Nagpur usually settle in double digits. The monthly average here is 13℃. However, this season on account of cold spells, these have dropped to single digits too. The period ranging from December 19 to December 25 continuously reported single digit minimums. Then, there was a gap of one day I.e December 27. Then again December 28 onward till January 5, minimums settled in single digits only. After a two day gap I.e on January 6 and 7, January 8 onward, minimums have continuously remained below normal by 5℃ on account of Cold Wave conditions.

Hyderabad- Hyderabad generally remains two to three degrees higher than Nagpur. The monthly average minimum here is 15℃. From December 18 till December 22, minimums reported under 15℃. December 29 to January 4 observed minimums oscillating between 9℃ and 12℃. January 8 onward, minimums have been on a dropping trend and in the last 24 hours, have been recorded at 10.9℃.

During last 24 hours, minimums over Nagpur have been recorded at 7.7℃, which is below normal by 5℃. On the other, minimums over Hyderabad have been recorded at 10.9℃, below normal by 4℃.

Thus, looking at the above temperatures, we can say that drop in minimum over Vidarbha and Telangana is directly proportional to each other. Further, in the absence of any significant weather system, weather across both Telangana as well Vidarbha will remain dry in the coming days.